It’s a shame that the public has to be reminded of this from time to time, but any cop can testify to this inescapable fact of police work: Where there is no punishment for criminal behavior, crime will flourish.

Nowhere has this been demonstrated with greater clarity lately than in Chicago, where the Sun-Times has taken notice and sounded the alarm. In a three-part series that concluded Tuesday, reporters Mark Konkol and Frank Main examined the violent incidents that occurred over a single weekend in Chicago two years ago. During that 59-hour period, from April 18 -20, 2008, forty people were shot in the city, seven of them fatally. Stop and consider that for a moment: one city, one weekend, seven people murdered, and 33 others shot but still alive.

As horrifying as those numbers are, they are far from the most disturbing revelation in the Sun-Times series. You might assume that such an extraordinary outbreak of carnage would have aroused the citizenry in Chicago to demand swift action from their police, prosecutors, and elected officials to see to it that those responsible for the violence were brought to justice. You might assume so, that is, if you don’t live in Chicago.

As it happens, not a single suspect in any of those shootings has been convicted of a crime. One accused shooter, says the Sun-Times, awaits trial for killing his boss. The other six murders remain unsolved, as do nearly all of the non-fatal shootings that occurred that weekend. In 2009, Chicago detectives “cleared” 30 percent of the murders and 18 percent of the non-fatal shootings they investigated. But, as in any city, a “clearance” in Chicago does not necessarily mean a suspect was arrested, charged, and convicted, but merely that one was identified to the satisfaction of investigators. In some cases detectives are reminded of one axiom of big-city police work: today’s suspect is tomorrow’s victim. Police sometimes come across evidence identifying someone as a murder suspect only to discover he himself has been gunned down, either in retaliation for the earlier murder or merely as a consequence of his engaging in a high-risk lifestyle.

In other instances, police identify a suspect but are frustrated when prosecutors decline to file charges for lack of cooperating witnesses or other perceived weaknesses in the case. You’ll find it strange, but some shooting victims themselves refuse to cooperate with police and prosecutors, even when they know and can identify the person who shot them.

And so it should surprise no one that in a city where there is little risk of consequences for shooting and even killing someone, people tend to be shot and killed with greater frequency than elsewhere. Chicago’s murder rate, i.e., the number of murders per 100,000 residents, is twice that of Los Angeles and almost three times that of New York. Comparisons among the three cities’ statistics for robberies and aggravated assaults are similarly lopsided. (Chicagoans might find some comfort in the knowledge that the murder rate in Detroit is almost twice as high as theirs, and New Orleans’s is more than three times as high.)

156 Comments, 64 Threads

1.
Bill Gannon

Why a highly qualified and motivated officer would remain in any of those departments is a beyond me. Voters generally get what they deserve, and Chicago’s [and Detroit's and New Orleans'] crime rate[s] prove it. Our motto this year should be, “A vote for an incumbent is a vote for rotten government”.

Screw the damn cops. NYC has become gestapoland. The police are everywhere. They stop and frisk innocent people by the hundreds on a daily basis. This is Nazi Germany not America. They give tickets for the most obscure infractions. They are pitiful. They are beggars. Who likes the cops anymore? That should be the story not this one. Cops do whatever they like with impunity. They run red lights, drive on the wrong side of the road and speed at rediculous speeds because they know they are immune to tickets. Why is it that so many off duty cops get involved in fights? Because they are arrogant. Cops don’t prevent crime, they just do more paperwork. Increased cop levels means more innocent people get hassled. Does it seem like I’m pissed off. You bet!!! I’m white and I feel the heat, imagine how Black people must feel.

Something like that. I passed a cop car that made a U-Turn across a double yellow line. He pulled me over and asked for my license and reg. He said I failed to use a signal to change lanes. Mind you I’m in a convertible and no other traffic was nearby on a two lane avenue. He was an arrogant asshole. He breaks the damn law and I get lectured!!! Cops break the law all the time! They drive on the wrong side of the road run red lights as if they don’t exist. A lady friend told me her client is a cop and he speeds on the highway knowing he won’t get a ticket. NYPD gives tickets for seatbelts like they’re going out of style. I guess gubmint ineptitude is partially to blame. Since they can’t balance a budget they have to collect revenue some way. Now I’m a middle aged white man imagine the hassle Blacks and Hispanics are getting! The Stop and Search law has recently been removed by Gov Paterson. Thousands of innocent civilians have been frisked by the police. This is the most disgusting act am American can endure. Imagine yourself being stopped by a cop sheerly by the cop’s will. Imagine the paranoia that is created everytime you walk down the street. This makes the Arizona law child’s play. I’ll stop you for absolutely no valid reason whatsoever and frisk you because I THINK you might commit a crime. Where was the ACLU on this? This is most heinous. This is not America. This is GESTAPOLAND!!!!

Harry, i think its funny that you mock the police but when your in trouble the first pepole you call to save your life is the police. You say there are too many police out there but when your walking down the street and get robbed your going to hope those cops are around.

I think you need to move to San Francisco, or up by U.C Berkeley, Ca. If I lived in N.Y. and endured 9-11, I would LOVE to see so many officers doing their job.

If you use some common sense, you’d see that officers HAVE to run red lights and drive on the other side fo the road sometimes when responding to certain calls. Officers are EXEMPT from the rules of the road when driving to an emergency. I think that if you, your child, wife or mother were being shot or robbed, you wouldn’t want officers driving there at 35 mph and stopping at every red light.

Please do us all a favor and move to some other liberal town in the U.S. Or better yet – move to some other country.

Please feel free not to call 911 when you get assaulted and robbed, or your home is burglarized and your daughter or wife is raped. Don’t want any of those nasty cops coming around to enforce stupid laws…

You make me laugh. Hopefully no one has to be in that situation but if I were in that situation I’d be dead before the lazy ass cops got there! I have more faith in EMS and Firefighters. I think it is time for us to protect ourselves because the cops will not be there in time to protect you! You will just be a statistic. All the cops are good for is to take a report so you can give the case number to the insurance company. Now they say cops have a tough job and it is hard to run toward trouble when everyone else is running away from it but that doesn’t excuse belligerence, arrogance and petty annoyances. Moreover, no one forced them to become a cop. There’s a reason why people don’t report things to cops. For one, the response may be slow or nonexistant. If such is the case future reporting of incidents will be a waste of time. Another reason is that in certain situations people deal with events in their own way. A mobster doesn’t call a cop if things go bad. Most of these instances are illegal activites and who is going to complain to a cop that someone stole your pound of Marijuana? What we read and what is are miles apart. I am concerned about daily activites being crimped and hampered by an overzealous police force looking to collect revenue for a bankrupt municipality or for the rights free people used to enjoy in this country called America. Really, after all the crime one reads about how many acts have you actually witnessed in your entire life? For the vast majority of us it is ZERO!!! I’ll take those odds anyday versus Geatapo tactics.

New York’s murder rate under David Dinkins for two of his four years in office was roughly six people killed per day — 2,245 people killed in 1990, or 6.15 deaths per day, and the Sun Times story was focusing on a weekend in Chicago when seven people were killed which (thankfully) still stands out as an abnormal number.

You can argue that some of the police scrutiny can be overbearing, or even that the aging of the boomer generation out of the demnographic that is responsible for most of the crime helped lower the rates, but it would be naive to think that the changes made after 1993 didn’t have something to do with it.

Harry, please tell us about your arrest record? May we see your Field Interview cards? If an officer stops you without reasonable/probable cause you have a million dollar lawsuit in your hand. How many such suits have you prosecuted?
Let us guess, Harry, that you are a crook? A little booze, a little dope, smalltime thefts, lies and embezzlement, some sexual activity you aren’t real proud of; badmouthing people?

If and when you shape up, the cops will appear much more virtuous. And when a couple of thugs(your fellow cophaters) are punching your guts out in an alley, with twenty civilians watching, will you not really WANT the cop coming to save you to drive on the wrong side of the street to get to you a little faster? When he untangles y’all shall he treat the Bad Guys like the humanoid feces they are, or perhaps like his four year old niece?
JIm Lewis is deaf, dumb and blind. Somebody hand him a tin cup.

Robotech master ain’t never been there and done that. Wherever it is true that the police are no better than the average citizen one will find corrupt police; because the average citizen is a creature of corruption.He lies, cheats, steal, scofflaws, etc., on a daily basis. He is sometimes under the influence of drugs. He is selfish, cowardlyand greedy. A good cop must be none of the above. There are few such, and that is why, ideally and practically, cops must be better than the most of the rest of us. And, when they are, they surely know it. Is it just possible that we no longer have enough Good Guys to get the job done?

HARRY YOUR A DUMBASS SHUT UP. Cops have a difficuly job dealing with dummies like you. who wants to live in a city without cops? If you do, then you should move out of the United States. The other thing is every time cops do something peopel like you who dont know a thing about police work criticize them, on how they should do there job. And news flash for you Harry, not all criminals look like bad guys. Who is to say a criminal dosent look inocent? the next time you complain again think aboutwhen was the last time you did some good to your community? and just for you info im not white. I live in a problem area of los angeles. I been stoped by the cops alot where I live at. but thats not as bad as the times I been robbed,shot at and stabbed twice.

90% of the murders are directly related to 2 things: The Drug War & Welfare. End those 2 things & our Urban area will stop being the most violent place on Earth. Don’t do anything & it will continue to spread to the suburbs & rural areas. This country will be Mexico in no time! There are thousands of unsolved murders, but cops would rather harrass hard working Americans going to work that forgot to put on a seatbelt. They’d rather harrass some guy playing fetch with his dog at the park. They’d rather harass a smoker not 15 ft from the door. They rather harrass some kid about curfew working nights to support his family. They rather bust restuarant chefs for serving fatty duck liver. They’d rather harass honest citizens for doing business on a cell phone while driving perfectly, but leave the Cabbie alone that almost kills people on a daily basis! They would rather bust some guy smoking a little weed to take some pleasure in life while working 70 hrs a week trying to keep a roof over his family’s heads. Cops like doing these activities because they are money generators. You don’t get anything form these killers except expenses at the ER, prison, etc. The cops need their million dollar pensions while having a job you have to kill someone to get fired & even then it’s hard to fire them. Cops are the leaders in DUI’s, but they always get let go unless they kill someone, but they sure love ruining the lives of the rest of us!

You said it all. America is a Police State. Police are not the good guys any more. More police = more problems. When police became a lawless, Gestapo force, and the Constitution no longer applied, we became a savage society. It will get worse. The cops are the toughest street gang in the country.

Look to the local goverment. Chicago is a classic example of what happens when a city goes to a :Socialist government. What you get is rampant crime, public entitlement programs which further aid people not wanting to work, look for work and just kicking it waiting for the next hand out.

Interesting to note this is the Prsident’s home town. Sad, very sad to see this country going down the tubes.

I don’t know how much effort is being put into finding the shooters mentioned in the story, but we do know that the Chicago police have arrested a Christian for praying outside of Planned Parenthood. See http://www.thomasmoresociety.org/2010/0727/bubblearrest/ for article and video.

I’d really like to know why Mayor Richard Daley still has a job? Crime and corruption are out of control in Chicago, yet people like Daley keep getting elected. True, you can attribute this to machine politics. But after a while you’d think everyone in the city would just get fed up with the crime and the corruption in the city. The people within the Daley machine should all be asking themselves: “What has this jerk done for us lately and why is our city in the toilet?” Maybe, just maybe, when they see enough dead bodies and enough dead cops they will get the hint that there is a connection between a bad mayor and the chaos in the streets. Maybe. That is, of course, unless they value their jobs over the welfare of their own city.

More dead bodies is not going to cause Mayor Daley to lose an election. Residents of the cemeteries are his largest constituency. Lifelong Republicans will vote straight Democrat after they are murdered in Chicago.

Sadly the Republicans DON’T put good candidates against the mayor. I would quickly vote for anyone who has a shot against Daley…and I know many others who would as well. However the political machine has shut down the Republicans in the city itself. Corruption in Illinois is standard…especially with anyone linked to the Democrat party. The system within almost every City department isn’t how well can someone do a job…but who they know. That defines promotions and hires throughout the city. Until the entire political system is shut down the decent hard working citizens of this City will remain paralyzed.

I’ve stopped using the term RINO. I no longer care what kind of Republican someone is. The question is are they a Conservative, or just a CINO?

Before moving to Chicago I considered myself merely conservative (socially, economically). I had no idea, until I’d lived here for many years and seen the insanity, just how libertarian I also am.

The abuse of power in this state by the combine — not the machine, people, the combine — is insane. And yes, folks in these parts get the government they deserve. This will be controversial, but I swear there’s a large cohort here who elect corruptocrats because they admire them. The citizens aspire to a windfall and consider some polls who are in the sweet spot to be exemplars of their own aspirations to power and wealth at any price, devil be damned.

Just goes to show that the Dailey tryanny is not working and will never work. Chicago has been going that way for along time. Why does politicans always use Chicago as an example as to how to administer their policy. When you have no respect for law enforcement then you cannot enforce the law that keep us a civil society. Seems to me it is time for the people of Chicago take the city back from the entitled family and politicans that have been robbing the citizens far too long. Why haven’t they run people out of office like they did in Bell, Ca. Would love to see Mayor Dailey ousted from office on beautiful fall afternoon. Get up citizens of Chicago sharpen your picthforks and fuel your torchs and take you city back. It can be done, if not I guess you folk like it that way. Remember freedom is not free.

Seems too me that if the cops are that impotent, disillusioned and apathetic….armed citizens shouldn’t have a hard time storming city hall and tossing daley’s ass into a dumpster.

What are Chicagoans waiting for? A burning bush…a sermon from on high? The scummy irish pols have been the reason this city is a sewer. After all on the evolutionary ladder….Irish are the scum of Europe anyway. Why are they different here? Cause we believe in 4 leaf clovers and leprechauns?

Yeah its the Irish that are the problem in Chicago. How about the couple hundred thousand illegal aliens that are draining the local economy. Or the hundreds of thousands of blacks that live their entire lives on welfare. Last time I checked (today) less than 7% of homicide victims were classified as being white. That means 83% of 300 + murder victims were black or hispanic.

Irish, Chicago would have been Detroit to the infinite power without the illegal aliens. They buffered the “irish city worker” neighborhoods so you didnt have to go toe to toe with the blacks. We actually might have seen lower crime had Chicago’s Mexican population moved inward toward Englewood and the West Side (like in LA) instead of to better suburban and NW Indiana pastures. Now the black belt looks to expand fully to Cicero Ave and midway and also will expand more into the NW side.

The problem is the courts. Not just serial lenience as status quo, but failure to prosecute crimes detected and investigated by police, either through lack of will (many in prosecutors’ offices are defense attorneys in training, waging war against the cops and incarceration) or lack of resources, or both. And that lack of resources is a political choice and also a consequence of diversion of justice dollars into everything but getting criminals off the streets. Frivolous appeals become rules; judges are chosen on the grounds of their “empathy” for offenders and animosity towards cops. The police occupy a tiny militarized zone between criminals and a justice system that is largely hostile to their efforts to keep streets safe. I don’t envy them.

Even in the remotest extreme, where a suspect is actually arrested, charged, tried and convicted, the penalty for murder in Cook County averages five years in prison. By the time a juvenile spends even a night in prison, on average, he has been arrested 17 times and let go.

Such is Cook County justice. If only we could get rid of all those gun stores in the city that Daley spends so much TV time complaining about.

This pattern has been observed for years. Yet Chicago’s citizens keep electing the same crowd. At least, after the McDonald decision, some may avail themselves of the opportunity of self-help. I expect Gura et al go back to the supes since Hizzoner’s new gun laws forbid carry of arms (the whole of the city can’t be a “sensitive place” under Heller’s dicta). Then we’ll see some “hope and change,” and the criminal class will have something to worry about. Finally.

The Chicago citizens are getting just what they deserve. I suspect that millions will cheer as Chicago, Detroit, and other Democrat cesspools self destruct. Sadly, thanks to Democrats and RINOs, the rest of America will soon be another Venezuela, or even worse, Mexico or Zimbabwe.

Maybe ,fool, you can tell me the last time there was a republican mayor in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore,Cleveland or New orlenas? the reason I mention those cities is becuase 3 of them have the highest muder rates per 100,000. The other 3 are the 3 poorest cities in the US. And all of them have been run by demonrats(with the short term exception of Cleveland) by lefty democraps since the 1950s.

I would agree except for the fact that voters really never have a choice as to who to vote for for mayor. Republicans never run anyone against daley and the few democrats that run against him are actually worse than him, i.e. reverend Meeks. In a city of almost 3 million, Daley got a little over 400,000 votes in the last election. His nearest opponent had 20,000. Many people don’t even bother to vote. When your choice is vote for daley or don’t vote…does it really even matter?

This is a great read and the reason why we have such crime as that in Chicago. Heck you can’t protect yourself there so you are free game for the hunter just humans this time not animals. It happens when politicans stay in office too long. Being from Florida I think that the mayor’s positiomn is an entitlement to the Dailey family. Whose next is he gearing up one of his grand sons to take over? When you have no respect for the law and especially no respect for the brave men and women that badge up each day and do their job then you do not have a mechanism to enforce the law. Sad day in Chicago, sorry to see it happen, but the people of Chicag

In my backward way of thinking it is good that the police are in at least as much danger as civilians. Safety in all of our cities is directly related to the elected officials and the police departments. The elected officials pass laws, and police determine how strictly those laws are enforced. Ask the mayor and police chief how their restrictive hand gun laws and and lax criminal justice system are working out for them.

I don’t believe this is true. It is actually politicians and their appointees (to police boards, courts, and prosecutorial offices) who overwhelmingly determine what laws are enforced and how strictly. One place you can read about how this works in Chicago is the celebrated blog Second City Cop.

Police do determine how the law is enforced. As examples. Ticket at 5 mph over the limit? 10 mph? Warning or ticket? Disorderly persons or felony battery? Enforcement focused on traffic, drug, or violent crime? Shift schedules, most cops working nights and weekends in high crime areas of day shift holding the Mayors hand? I was remiss in leaving out one point in the triangle. The city prosecutors determine who goes to trial so they have some responsibility for failure of law enforcement as well.

As a Chicago Police Officer I can tell you that it is not that the Police aren’t doing their job, it is that the politicians and the make believe ghetto reverends don’t allow them to do their jobs anymore. To many Officers have seen their co-workers sued and punished for trying to be proactive and prevent crime. We’re no longer allowed to chase gangbangers/drug dealers off of the corners because “they have a right to be there.” Things have gotten so bass ackwards here that it has gone from ironic, to sad, to terrifying. The criminals know that they can just scream racism or harassment and the Officer will be scrutinized. Couple that with the fact that the Officer knows that most likely the judges will give the criminal a slap on the wrist (if that) and it all seemingly becomes pointless. Your comment of wanting the police to be just as afraid as the citizens exemplifies the insanity of the thinking here in Chicago. A scared citizen runs away from danger, the Police run towards it. Do you really want to be outran by a Police Officer when things go south?

What is the common thread in all the violent cities mentioned and those which are riddled with crime, depravity, drugs, gangs, high dropout rates, and high illegitimacy rates? They are all run by Democrats. Every city government official, and every bureaucrat is a Demoncrat. And the cities have been run by Democrats for decades. They may be white or black but they are all Democrat.

And yet the black citizens keep voting for the same black and white Democrats. They and the NAACP can scream racism, blah, blah, blah all they want but the fact is they brought it upon themselves. They live in squalor but still vote Democrat.

The sad part is that they-the black-citizen will never learn the difference. Their level of education and the MSM constant refrain that the white man is keeping them down-written ironically by a white progressive-is enough to keep the black citizen dumbed down to always vote Democrat.

You fail to see the cultural and historical differences between people of color and local government. These people are still being repressed and exploited today from corporate interests, the police, Fox news and Andrew Brietbart.

Ruebacca, after you catch your breath please return to your village. They miss you. Logic and political perception like yours have become vanishing commodities. Monty Python are seeking new sources of material, and based on today you should be in the running.

Just how, pray tell, are ANY minorities in America “repressed,” considering how many of them are climbing over fences, floating on rafts, in boats or crowded planes from every “minority” controlled nation on the planet…?

Please, oh please…taxpayers are on the edge of every seat awaiting enlightenment as to what further must be done for those poor downtrodden who hate and spew venom but will never willingly return to the lands they fled.

Go run to Tavis Smiley and your plantation. I , for one, have had it with the “racism” cry from blacks. Asians, mos tof whom have been here for under 30 yrs and endured far worse to get here, have assimilated andbecome sucessfull. You continue to want to blame “racist” whites for your own laziness and unwillingness to work. How many illegetimate kids you have , young lady? How many black kids run around all night and there mothers have no idea where there at? How many fathers actually raise there children? Blame yourselves for your failures. Carpetbaggers like Tavis Smiley and Jeremiah Wright are just as guilty as the KKK ever was. By the way , loser-Fox News has only been on since 1996-who was responsible for your failures before then?

Just out of curiousity. Are you by any chance on the payroll of a RINO? If not, why can’t you see that it’s Political corruption that is the enemy of the people, not the dimocrats alone, unaided and unabetted?

The Pendergast clan in Kansas City. Even before Daley, Big Bill Thompsons Chicago machine. A crook is a crook, no matter what there political stripe is. The only difference today is the media. Duke Cunningham, a republican crook , goes to Jail. Democrap crooks are treated like conquering heroes rather than what they really are. Look at Blago-that ounk should have the book thrown at him. The media treats it like”hes charming-that means something”. Since when?

Repeat offenders were at about 56% of criminals in major cities. Betcha it is much higher in Chitown. The brokeback legal system uses the term recidivism to make it sound cool but it just points the blinding light at the revolving door of the justice system. When you live in Chitown or the Illinois suburbs and try to defend yourself, your family or your property; then you become the felon and the revolving door stops revolving.

I believe you’ll also find what the FBI revealed in a study of the rising violence in New Orleans prior to Katrina. An almost complete break down the local prosecution/judicial system due to corruption and other factors resulting in an almost non-existent prosecution and conviction rate and rapid return of violent offendors to the street on minimal bail in only a few hours after arrest.
The basic fact remains, once the populace no longer trusts the application of law/justice, social break down rapidly takes hold as it becomes a matter self preservation to not cooperate/participate in the system.

With the overtly political/partisan interference from Obama’s DOJ across the country, we are beginning to see the Chicago failure applied nationally.

Yeah, and then the government shipped the criminals to other cities like Houston so their crime rates could go up. Of course, some of that was having them in a city where they WOULD be arrested for crimes…..

What do you expect….?
That’s the govt. they want there.
In Chicago it is the police who are the enemy and not the gangs.
Let’s not pretend that this is some sort of phenomena that cannot be explained.
Only powerful elected officials can curtail the police from bringing down crime and those people only have their job because they were elected.
Chicago has chosen it’s fate plain and simple.

New Orleans has its current high per capita murder rate as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina and the many New Orleans residents who fled to Texas. Many folks who had spent their whole lives in New Orleans were astonished to learn that the racial discrimination that they had brought up to expect was, if not entirely absent, much less than anticipated. They also discovered a much lower rate of political corruption, a healthier economy and much better schools than what they had been used to. Many of those folks chose to remain in the Lone Star State.

One group of native New Orleaneans, though, did not find Texas to their liking. They were horrified to discover that, unlike Louisiana where murder is punished by 60 days in jail, in Texas murderers receive long prison sentences and in some cases lethal injection. Those people have returned to New Orleans.

Hum, and all those cities are democratic strong holds too with historical weapons free zones: the violence is also a generational thing, seems every twenty years there is a culling of the herd by police, citizens, and considerate members of the herd. It’s is nice to know the herd is self limiting.

Maybe it’s finally time for all you kneejerk conservatives to wake up and realize that the federal government can and should run all of the police efforts in every state.

The states can’t and won’t run their own business so now is the time for a national police force just like the military. If we can run the world’s so called greatest military why can’t we just let the feds take over and run all police and fire too?

Man it’s so simple and right before your eyes! Why can’t you Tea Party crackers just give up and realize the government can do it better!

The tea Party crackers? How about the Government Uncle Toms standing with their hands out bowing, with a smile and saying Yeeeah Masser to the Federal Government? There are Black people in the Tea Party just as the are White people in the line with their hands out begging at the government trough. Try, just try not to make such stupid statement s in the future.

The state doesn’t run the Chicago Police Department — the city does. Illinois has a closer claim to take over than do the feds. But I don’t think any level of police can handle this — the more action you take, the more errors; the more errors, the more riots.

The only think that can help is for enough Chicago voters to get sick of it and join with the state to pass a shall-issue concealed-carry law.

There are just too many people in Chicago who need to be shot to rely on the police to do it.

There is a white elephant in this article. Isn’t every place mentioned a concentrated black community? Detroit proper, the husk of New Orleans, Chicago … these are not just Democrat strongholds, but places that reflect the values and culture of US inner city African-Americans. If your wondering why a 62 year old veteran cop was gunned down infront of his home in uniform, I suggest you broaden your powers of observation to include more data than “in Chicago.”

I’ve lived in Illinois, and Chicago exerts a poisonous influence all the way down the state, hurting farming communities and perfectly normal cities.

“You’ll find it strange, but some shooting victims themselves refuse to cooperate with police and prosecutors, even when they know and can identify the person who shot them.” I do not find it strange at all. These thugs are just like the jihadis. Even though one group is trying to kill you, they are not the real enemy. For jihadis, the real enemy is the “Great Satan.” For these thugs it’s “whitey.”

By the way, John Edwards was correct all along, we do live in two Americas. Is there any way we can put up a big fence to keep them apart?

not to mention that Chicago has the most crooked politics in the entire civilized world. There’s more transparency and openness in Moscow or Beijing.

But the people of Chicago keep voting for it, so they are either crooks themselves, or too stupid to see what’s going on. It’s an idiocracy, and the Daley family and his cronies profit from it like vultures on carrion.

The stat for Detroit is misleading. Detroit has a much lower population than Chicago. I worked downtown for over 15 years and I often visit stores, museums, restaurants, bars and festivals throughout the city and never have I had any problems. I’m sure we have some gang activity but I couldn’t name an active street gang and don’t know of anyone who ever had gang problems. Like everywhere, people will kill people they know and have issues with but the random crime rate in Detroit is actually very low.

I’m a Chicago resident, and remember choosing to stay inside that weekend of June 18-20 as I started hearing about shootings all too close to where I live. One of the big causes for alarm was the Puerto Rican day festival on Humboldt Park, which always bring added potential for violence. But this year, despite a reported 300 uniformed/undercover officers working the event, there were 18 shootings within 24 hours on relatively near the event. Obviously 18 is only part of that 54 total- but I wonder how well staffed the other areas could have been.

When people make blatant generalizations about a group of people they have no knowledge about they make themselves look stupid. There aren’t enough COPS in Chicago…they are currently down 2,000 due to Daley’s hiring slow down. Most Chicago cops are NOT crooked…they are hard working individuals. Yes there are some bad apples…but that is the same in ANY profession. Don’t make idiotic generalizations when you don’t know what you are talking about.

Part of the problem is the internal corruption of CPD. And it isn’t just at the command level. The officers seem to be largely corrupt too.

Look at Joseph Frugoli, the detective who had a long history of drunk driving that was successfully covered up by his fellow officers until he killed two people last year. This included the time he was drunk when he collided with a marked CPD police car.

How about Chicago Police Officer John Ardelean, who walked free and back onto the job after killing a man and his child while drunk last year? This happened because the CPD officers that arrested him “failed to notice” his staggering, his bloodshot eyes or that he stank of alcohol.

How about courageous officer Anthony Abbate, who in drunken rage beat the crap out of a female bartender half his size who refused to serve him more alcohol in 2007? This was followed up by two his police friends attempting to bribe and intimidated her into not pressing charges, while Abbate plotted to plant drugs on patrons. His buddies, being cops, were naturally not punished. If the beating wasn’t on video Abbate wouldn’t have been punished either, as he apparently wasn’t after previous incidents.

You hit the nail on the head. You should also mention John burg, who is responsible for the torture (real torture) of at least a couple hundred people, many wholly innocent, during the 80s and never faced conviction. Or how about Drew Peterson, who killed his wives and was assisted in the coverups by the rest of the corrupt government there (his third wife’s death was listed as a drowning – she was found in a dry bath tub).

As for this officer killed in his driveway, I don’t believe the robbery story. Nobody robs a cop in uniform. He was probably a clean cop who found out something he wasn’t supposed to know about.

The corruption of that government at every level is so complete that I cannot take seriously an article about the police department that doesn’t even mention it.

Drew Peterson has never been associated in any way with the CPD. He was a southwest suburban (Bolingbrook, IL) cop. He sits, awaiting trial for the murder of his 2nd wife, in the Will County jail, not 26th & California (the Cook County jail).

You mention THREE out of gee…HOW MANY CHICAGO COPS??????? 12,000 (if you trust the mayor’s numbers). Most Chicago Cops are good honorable hard working citizens who are trying to make a difference in this horrible city. If you take the headlines from the LIBERAL press and jump to the conclusion that every Chicago Cop is bad you are definitely ignorant. The bad apple cops deserve the punishment they get…and most cops get pissed off when the bad ones make them look bad. Most cops WANT the bad apple cops punished and kicked off the force permanently. So go after the bad ones…but praise the good ones. Praise the ones who constantly put their life on the line to protect EVERYONE in the city. Not just the decent citizens…but also the criminals. If someone is firing shots the police don’t stop and ask if the victims are decent citizens…they run towards the scene regardless of WHO the victim is.

Little Big Mayor is too busy banning sales of spray paint, waging war on chefs who serve foie gras and terrorizing upscale wineshop owners who don’t card steady customers in violation of the zero tolerance ID policy to deal with the murderous street thugs. In 2008, Reason magazine found Chicago was the number one nanny state city in the nation, worse even than New York City. Daley stays in power because voters are convinced the only alternative might be far worse, say Jesse Jackson Jr. or Bobbty Rush.

When I left seven years ago I had a feeling it was about to become very bad. The Chicago tourists and business travelers saw of clean streets, museums, restuarants, median planters overflowing with flowers and wrought iron fences around charming parks increasingly coexisted with large areas of lawlessness. Worse, the local media worked overtime to cover up all the crime. This was particularly true of incidents that took place too close to the downtown and north lakefront areas. For example, a friend had called to tell me he had been in a restuarant inside a famous downtown Chicago landmark when there was had been a killing in the restroom. We both watched for news coverage. One station had a very short item and then the whole thing went straight down the memory hole.

The root cause is the widespread belief in Western societies that it is possible to tolerate the existance of violent street gangs with a life relatively risk free. We might just as well try to square the circle.
Anyone who belongs to an armed criminal gang should be permanently removed from society. When we grasp this nettle, I have no idea how many people we will have to get rid of. In England it might be a few thousand. Your mileage may differ. Perhaps these people, who behave towards their fellows like beasts of prey, could be given their own island, with elementary food and shelter, but without any other benefits of civilisation, to live lives that would be “nasty butish and short”. Hardly different to what they have now, but sparing the rest of us!

How do rob an off duty cop without a gun? With a sharp stick? Clearly this individual was aware of and abided by the citywide gun ban,right? I just don’t get it.
I second the notion that the residents of Chicago deserve the government they’ve saddled themselves with. Any productive citizens left in that city: come to Texas. We still have work for you and will keep you safe. Every third person carries concealed because we understand that you can’t carry a cop.

Thankfully, thats the one thing we did right in Arizona was to have concealed carry, in spite of the idiot Janet Incompetanos efforts to stop it. The sheriffs here are some of the best known(obviously Arpaio and Mack are) and themost powerful ,who understand there authority and how to use it properly. And a little off topic-a Mexican drug Lord has just put a 1 Million $ bounty on Arpaio(its the 6th time since 2000). Im sure Joes not too worried.

“It’s a shame that the public has to be reminded of this from time to time, but any cop can testify to this inescapable fact of police work: Where there is no punishment for criminal behavior, crime will flourish.”

Worse still, there is punishment. Unfortunately what society deems sufficient punishment nowadays is based upon who the offender is, whom he has offended, which of the two is a minority, and naturally whether there is some way to blame society instead because career victims do not commit crimes without severe provocation.

Bring back corporal punishment for high school kids and introduce the cane for adults. Which is more “cruel and unusual,” someone getting shot to death or the purpetrator getting a few whacks on the buttocks?

Sarcasm on: What I don’t understand is why the whole Daley machine hasn’t been convicted under the RICO act? Sarcasm off:

I wonder what the stats are for people voting with their feet for Chicago. This seems to be a growing problem for Blue states and cities. Only the rich and the poor are staying while the middle class flees.

The area has high levels of crime and gang activity. He had recently bought a new car that was the apple of his eye and did what cops tell people who live in high crime areas specifically NOT to do. He had a fixed routine. Every morning after coming off his shift he invariably whiped the night’s accumulation of city grime off his car. Three “youths”, most certainly street gang members, caught him off guard while he was doing so.

No one would kill a cop who unless he was mixed up in something? Maybe you should have read about these 3 officers that were killed. They were outgoing people who cared about other people and their communities. There is no respect for police anymore, much less fear. It is because police in Chicago and all over the country are being castrated by the politicians and the liberals. You have a President who even looks down on police. The citizens of this country have gotten exactly what they asked for. Cops that are the warm and friendly police. Because people complain that police are gestapo’s, brutal and all corrupt. Thanks to the hatred of the police this country is rampnt with violence and the police are as big of a target as the citizens. Just remember when the respect and fear of the police is gone, then the one’s who suffer the most are the honest citizen. The criminals have all the rights and the courts slap them on the wrist and let them go to commit more crime. Thanks to all those who voted for the likes of Obama. Yes there has been cahnge, but not for the positive. The citizens of Chicago and the rest of the country are suffering for this. As the old saying goes, how do you know when a politician is lying? His lips are moving.

I moved from a Chicago suburb to the Florida panhandle two years ago. That was my solution. The average white Chicago resident is an elitist liberal who lives in a neighborhood shielded from violence. What the poor (mostly) blacks in the bad neighborhoods need is not pity, but SHAME. Shame for their lifestyles, shame for their wretched interpersonal behavior, shame for the Godless anti-American churches they attend, shame for blaming all their problems on others, shame for being lazy, shame for voting for the same evil people time and time again, shame for their ridiculous pride, shame for being the utterly worthless human beings they have allowed themselves to become. In the end they will all end up in hell. Then it will be too late to realize their shame.

Yeah, it’s the white elephant. Whites have been conditioned to completely remove race and enthnicity for digesting statistical information. It’s not even a variable in the algorithm, even thought it has the highest weight of effect. Many white people have actually died wearing color blinders stopping them from realizing impending danger. The author COMPLETELY avoids race, but black-on-black violence is an INCREDIBLE statistic modifier, and he does quote statistics. If you just avoid prejudging, and look at data, conclusions will appear themselves. You don’t need hate, or racial assumptions. Just look at the data.

Angry white dude is pretty much a white guy, tea party supporter who wants justice and US patriot values. There is no PC there against black racists.
Stuff Black People Don’t Like is kind of a white centric view of the black domination of particular cultural elements of the US. ALso not PC, at all.
I got to both those place from the comments sections of pajamas media, over the last, maybe, 6 months. They are not raceist sites, but fighting back against black institutional racism. I doubt this port will pass censor muster, but , I don’t know, I had to try. Philidelphia wasn’t even on my radar until I read it there.

…the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Repeal all gun control laws and allow law abiding citizens to carry. Don’t worry about who buys guns.

I’m beginning to think that the “Wild West” was a gross mischaracterization of current historians. After all, if the West was wild how in the world did we make it to the 21st Century? I think when we have pervasive gun control laws it leads to the “Wild United States” where criminals reign supreme.

The FBI? You mean all of those guys cheating on their tests??> The guys that didn’t know the boss wore a skirt(Hoover)? Got drunk in NJ and killed innocent people. Sold secrets to the Soviet Union? That FBI? I could go on and on but I won’t.

Dear New York residents: Opportunistic right-wingers will tell you that your high crime rate is the result of a city that is essentially run by Democrats and Progressives. Don’t let them fool you. After all, your crime rate is lower than that of Los Angeles.

Dear Los Angeles residents: Opportunistic right-wingers will tell you that your high crime rate is the result of a city that is essentially run by Democrats and Progressives. Don’t let them fool you. After all, your crime rate is lower than that of Chicago.

Dear Chicago residents: Opportunistic right-wingers will tell you that your high crime rate is the result of a city that is essentially run by Democrats and Progressives. Don’t let them fool you. After all, your crime rate is lower than that of Detroit.

Dear Detroit residents: Opportunistic right-wingers will tell you that your high crime rate is the result of a city that is essentially run by Democrats and Progressives. Don’t let them fool you. After all, your crime rate is lower than that of New Orleans.

Given that violent crime effects the poor and that violent crime tends to happen where Democrats run things, one might think that in fact, people whose ideologies get you killed ought not to say that they belong to the party of your people.

But then, the party of the children loves itself some abortion and single-parenthood, too. So, whatever.

As Jack pointed out, the last Chicago police officer killed was a uniformed officer that was targeted by “thugs” for his vehicle. A cop in uniform getting carjacked? That cannot be right! This is a poignant example of how bad Chicago has become – yet nothing has changed!

Why are we surprised? It is not as if Chicago is known for wholesome, good governance, low crime and quality of life. Intuitively, it is easier to argue the opposite.

Apparently the negative perception of the City and the police department was a major reason to hire an outsider – an FBI man. Mr. Weiss is paid $320,000 annually for running the CPD and to have an FBI agent in charge of the second largest police department in the U.S. without any local police experience brings to light the sheer political decision it was. The perception of corruption is mitigated with Weiss at the helm.

The adept political machine that gave us the Daleys and our current President are alive, well, and most capable with roots firmly dug into Chicago neighborhoods. Maybe some of that political clout could be uprooted to propel Chicago from its perch as the nation’s “Second City” to the first, by first getting a combined effort involving the community, law enforcement, the County Attorney (District Attorney), and the U.S. Attorney to catch, try, and imprison criminal suspects.

Too bad, because there’s a great city just dying to poke it’s head out from under the corruption, graft, and ineptness of Chicago’s leaders. In a republic, if a government consistently fails to protect the citizenry, then that government must be must be thrown out. Then and only then, will one of the shooters be charged, convicted and imprisoned for shooting any number of people in Chicago.

Good comment. Much more well thought out & informed than most of the comments that issue profundities such as that’s what you get when you take away guns” and “that’s what you get when you elect liberals,” or which urge the few remaining productive Chicagoans (if any such specimens exist) to “get out of that stinking cesspool & bring your business to Texas, Tennessee, southwestern Lesotho, etc.”

For the record, I’m anything but a liberal. But lifting Chicago’s gun ban won’t magically end the crime & violence. And considering the fact that the murder rate was significantly lower during the first 18 years of Mayor Daley’s reign than it has been in the last two, one can’t just blame Daley or Democrats and expect that ousting Daley will result in fewer violent crimes.

Chicago’s explosion in murders is a recent phenomenon (i.e., post-2008). Things were cool in 2006 & 2007. Daley & the Machine were in power then too. But something changed. And it changed post – 2008 — after Phil Kline was forced out as Police Superintendent, something like 1000 officers were let go, and Jody Weis came riding into town.

I agree gun control and the person who is elected the chief executive of the City may have very little to do with the crime rate.

I am currently a rank and file cop in an organization that too has had it’s share of scandal and low morale. With that written, police leadership and community support are two key elements in getting crime to drop. In the late 1990′s and early 2000′s, crime was up and officer morale was down in Los Angeles. A credible leader named William Bratton was hired and Chief Bernard Parks was ousted. The turnaround was dramatic and with Bratton’s accountability model called COMPSTAT, officers began taking back neighborhoods they used to only drive through. There are dozens of leaders that could do the same for CPD, maybe even some insiders. Productivity and morale went up because cops, in general, felt supported. Cops – honest cops – make the difference because there is no one else to deal with thugs. The feds and the FBI are support agencies and are not tasked or set up to provide metropolitan public safety so to have them involved only muddies the water.

Chicago’s issues likely run deeper. To have so many shootings with no suspects arrested and tried is unconscionable. Maybe this was an anomaly or maybe it is indicative of serious concurrent failings within the police department as well as the county attorney’s office. Whatever it is, I am hopeful Chicago looks at the issues it faces and decides on a bold course of action fix a problem that must be repaired. Chicago is a great city that deserves better!

Well actually, Mayor Daley and the Machine are a big reason why there’s suddenly such low morale in the CPD. There’s too much to mention regarding Daley, but jaw-dropping political corruption is ever-present in Chicago (although that’s nothing new). Probably more pertinent to the the problem of low morale in the CPD is the fact that the city is broke. Daley spent the last decade by throwing money around with reckless abandon. He expected the good times to keep rolling, but he pushed the envelope too far. Even before the economy crashed, it had become clear that the city’s finances were jacked up. But the recession hit Chicago especially hard. Chicago’s insane downtown real estate boom came to a screeching halt. And unfortunately, much of Daley’s spending revolved around building public spaces, parks and “green projects” under the assumption that rampant gentrification, ever-increasing office building/occupancy and the break-neck southward and westward spread of downtown mixed-use/residential “24 hour cities” within a city would keep the tax base multiplying for ever more.

But all the building/expansion/gentrification stopped before the bills were paid. Suddenly, the city was as cash-strapped and desperate as any 80′s hair metal star turned reality TV show contestant. So budgets had to be cut. And nearly 1000 Chicago cops found themselves on the chopping block.

Prior to the crime outbreak, the Police Superintendent was Phil Kline. He was a cop’s cop who, as a 3rd generation Chicago cop, was about as much of an insider as you’ll ever find. Kline had paid his dues: he’d worked his way to the top, having spent his early years as a beat cop. And although his elevation to top cop generated a lot of controversy at the time of his hiring (because he was the first white, and the job had been set aside for minorities), he proved to be the most effective and most respected Chicago Police Superintendent in years.

But a couple of big scandals hit the Department during his reign. When bar surveillance video of officer Anthony Abate pummeling a European immigrant female bartender’s head & slumped body went viral on the internet and made it into the CNN news cycle, Kline went on a local radio show and used a common, but decidedly non-P.C. Chicago-ism when he offhandedly said that Abate should be “ball-batted in the head.” That moment of indiscretion caused a stir in the local media, and in short order, Kline paid the ultimate price.

Daley brought Jody Weis in from the FBI’s Philadelphia office, making him Chicago’s first non-insider Police Superintendent since 1960. Officers were already incensed that Daley scapegoated Kline over an imprudent remark. But bringing in an outsider who’d never worn a uniform set really them off. When Daley tasked Weis with “downsizing” the police force, CPD morale took a page from LeBron James, and went waaay south.

But if CPD officers were deflated by Weis’ arrival, Chicago’s powerful, highly-structured, and politically-connected South Side and West Side street gangs were reinvigorated. Raging gang wars erupted as soon as Weis hit town. And with a radically downsized and overstretched police force that already had a major problem with morale, it was a recipe for disaster.

I haven’t talked to any Chicago cops in about a year, so I don’t really know how things stand this summer. But the violence is worse than ever. Thirty-five to forty-five people get shot each weekend. And although street gang crime has always been high in some parts of Chicago, there hasn’t been this much carnage since the Capone gang battled the Bugs Moran gang for control of the city’s prohibition-era booze running rackets.

It sounds like you have a pretty good understanding of the CPD morale situation, and of the larger issue of corruption in the Mayor’s office, in the city council and in the courts.

The above post is meant more for the benefit of readers who aren’t familiar with the situation on the ground in Chicago, and who have an image of Chicago as some kind of Road Warrior or Water World-style post-apocalyptic perma-ghetto where illiterate criminals gun down random people down on every street corner.

The truth is, most of the violence is concentrated in black neighborhoods on the South and West Sides. So crime and violence aren’t a reality in the lives of a large percentage of Chicagoans. Downtown, the majority of the North Side and the near West Side have become so upscale, gentrified and far-removed from the bad neighborhoods that most people in Chicago go about their lives blissfully disconnected from the gang wars that now plague “the ‘hood.”

And as long as well-heeled white people remain largely unaffected by the violence and crime, there won’t be significant political pressure on the Mayor and City Hall to turn things turned fast.

By the way, it’s no secret that Italian organized crime has long been the clout behind the Irish politicians — like Mayor Daley and Alderman Ed Burke — who control the Democratic Machine. The mob has taken some serious hits over the last 5 years, so they’re hardly riding high like they did in the 80′s (when the judges were more or less all bought off and made guys like Alderman Fred Roti were the shot-callers in City Hall). But they’re still a driving force behind the scenes in Chicago. Obviously, the violence that’s been going down in the black neighborhoods on the South Side isn’t the mob’s problem, but given the mob’s cozy relationship with the Mayor and the political Machine, you’ve got to wonder who else may be playing the clout game with City Hall. If the black street gangs have bought their way into political capital, or cut some sort of deal with the right highly-placed pols, it could go a long way toward explaining why there isn’t a bigger push to curb the violent crime.

The problem come down to really 2 parts… corrupt cops and corrupt government. Cops are no different then any other citizens expect they are payed to be citizens full time. When cops believe they are above other citizens, granted special “powers” such as the only ones allowed to have guns, defend themselves, etc they quickly turn to oppress the public because its in their benefit.

Corrupt government is much the same way… they pass laws that only apply to the “little ppl”. They are above everyone else and thus “know what best”. They also have special “powers” such as being allowed security for they houses or even guns… even the little things like reserved parking all plays a part.

When you let the ppl in “charge” believe they are an elite ruling class… they quickly believe you. Until you can walk down the street shooting cops for breaking the law places like chicago for remain sewer pipes. You must empower the citizens not the oppressive ruling class… and the first step in that is to punish the “ruling class” when they commit crimes.

SOUNDS LIKE CHICAGO IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF A NEW COMMUNITY ORGANIZER TO FILL THE VOID LEFT BY B.H. OBAMA. SEE WHAT HAPPENED WHEN HE DIDNT FIND A WORTHY REPLACEMENT FOR HIMSELF….JUST GOES TO SHOW YOU WHAT A REALLY GOOD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER HE WAS……PLEASE GO BACK TO CHICAGO OBAMA…THEY NEED YOU MORE THAN THE REST OF THE COUNTRY DOES!!!

Dear Sir or Madame,
Every damn time I sit down, its the same damn thing – I get stung in my arse. EVERY TIME!! But, I just keep on sitting cause the flowers look pretty and the sun is shining….I just can’t figure out why I keep getting stung…
Sincerely,
Ferdinand the Progressive Bull

Murders do not get solved in Chicago because Cops have forgotten how to do murder investigations. The amount of energy expended to solve just one murder is equal to that of solving 1000 consensual drug felonies. Cops get promoted by the number of felony arrests they compile the number of felony convictions they win. It is much much easier to get a drug conviction than a murder conviction.

The Police are a well-organized interest group. I just noticed the other day how many local police cars no longer say “To Protect and Serve” on their sides. Instead, they say “Keep Away.”

The illegals in Phoenix aren’t afraid of the police either. Even after one of their ilk killed a policeman who was just making a traffic stop, they continue to flaunt their birthplace’s flag and protest en masse. They know they have been immune to arrest for their immigration status in Phoenix and other “large” cities in Arizona. If arrested, the ACLU will protest and SEIU members will be bused in from California to join protests.

Nobody likes these low lifes becuase their so corrupt they control every lawyer in the state, every agency and the media, Professional standards, attorney general, states atorrney, inspector general are all puppets to these clowns, so if you have trouble with these criminals theirs nothing you can do about, They can screw with evidence, witnesses and lawyers and get away with it because their is no where you can complain to, corrupt CHicago is the worst in the country they framed thousands of hispanic and blacks but the white boy got away with all their crimes. They dont go after their MOB friends